Western coverage of the situation there seldom mentions the aid convoys and never mentions the new air-conditioned mall, resort hotels, spas, restaurants and busy markets.

A shopping mall opened in Gaza City last weekend. It is called, appropriately enough, Gaza Mall and even has a website complete with a catchy logo, and ads for “Israeli men’s trousers at an attractive price” and shirts from the United States.

There’s nothing remarkable about this, you say. New malls open all the time all around the world.

But think about it: One of the main complaints international organizations have against the Israeli blockade of Gaza is that construction materials, supposedly, are not getting through. Gazans are allegedly forced to live in dilapidated apartments and houses because big, bad Israel will not let cement mix and rebar pass its lines.

So just where did the materials come from to build Gaza Mall?

Admittedly, online descriptions of the mall as a “luxury” shopping centre are a bit over the top, although I suppose such descriptions are relative. (The first suburban shopping centres in Canada in the 1950s, while dwarfed by today’s mega-malls, must have seemed like palaces of commerce compared with the downtown department stores of the day.)

You can see photos of the Gaza Mall grand opening at the Palestinian Authority’s Safa website (safa. ps) or the website of photojournalist Tom Gross — tomgrossmedia. com. Note the tinsel streamers, balloons and mascots. If you look closely at the photos, you see a simple, two-storey collection of brightly lit but plain shops, apparently run by local merchants rather than the large chain stores that populate North American and European (and Israeli) malls.    

There is a single staircase in the centre–no escalator. However, according to the mall’s promotional material, there is “air conditioning, a parking lot, security guards, a full-service supermarket and a food court.”

Wait a minute, did the mall website say air conditioning!? It did. Somehow, despite the death grip Israel is supposed to have around the throats of poor, vulnerable Palestinians, the grip that we are told leaves Palestinians wanting for food and medicine, the stranglehold that has led to “concentration camp” conditions inside Gaza could not prevent the developers of Gaza Mall from finding commercial air conditioners to cool their building.

And what about the Israeli pants that are specially priced during the grand opening sale? Or the American shirts?

Israel and the United States are supposed to be the enemies of the Palestinians. Every week in their Friday sermons to the faithful, Palestinian imams spew out the most hateful claims against the “Zionists” and their sympathizers in Washington. Prayers are offered for the destruction of Israel and martyrdom is assured for all those who attack the Great Satan. (By the way, none of this has been tempered as a result of Barack Obama’s obsequious outreach to Muslim leaders and nations.)

Yet on the first days the doors opened at Gaza Mall, two of the big come-ons were pants made by the running, pig-dog Zionists and shirts from the decadent, imperialistic West. It all puts me in mind of the Cold War tales of ordinary Soviets trading away goods they’d had to work months to afford, just for a pair of black-market Levi jeans.

There is undoubtedly a lot of very real suffering and deprivation in Gaza, but as the Israeli Foreign Ministry pointed out recently, nearly 11,000 Gazans received free treatment for their diseases or injuries in Israeli hospitals last year and tons of food and medical supplies. Potable water and aid make their way to Gaza every day through Israel. Indeed, much of the food and aid originates in Israel.

The reason Israel was keen to interdict the Turkish flotilla in May was not so it could pile on the misery of Gazans; Israel lets scores of aid shipments in every day. It merely wanted a chance to offload the flotilla’s cargo and check it for weapons that could be used against it by Gaza’s terrorist rulers, Hamas.

When you are on Tom Gross’s page about Gaza Mall, scroll down to near the bottom where he has pictures of bustling Palestinian markets bursting with fresh fruit and vegetables.

I won’t try to argue that everything is happy and easy in Gaza. But Western coverage of the situation there seldom mentions the aid convoys and never mentions the new air-conditioned mall, resort hotels, spas, restaurants and busy markets.

National Post

lgunter@shaw.ca

By Avi Krawitz , 07/06/10 04:40
Diamonds.net

RAPAPORT… Israel’s polished exports tripled to $457.85 million in June 2010, according to data published by the Ministry of Industry, Trade and Labor. By volume, the exports rose 119 percent to 280,555.83 carats as the average price of polished exports increased 18 percent from a year earlier to $1,631.94 per carat.

The increase was impacted by higher than normal exports to Hong Kong, which accounted for 52 percent of the total, while the U.S., Belgium, India and China followed as the respective top five destinations for Israel’s polished trade.

Polished imports grew 93 percent to $389.2 million as net polished exports, measuring the excess of exports over imports, moved to positive $68.7 million, from negative $25 million a year earlier.

Rough imports increased 42 percent to $355.9 million, while rough exports rose 48 percent to $314.5 million. Israel’s net rough imports, the excess of imports over exports, grew 7 percent to $41.4 million. 

The country’s June net diamond account rose to $27.3 million, compared to negative $63.5 million in June 2009.

During the first half of 2010, polished exports rose 92 percent to $3 billion as the average price of the polished increased 18 percent to $1,811.58 per carat. Polished imports grew 61 percent to $1.88 billion as net polished exports jumped 130 percent to $1.6 billion.

Rough imports gained 113 percent from the previous year to $1.82 billion and rough exports doubled to $1.62 billion. Net rough imports more than tripled to $192.7 million.

Israel’s net diamond account for January through June rose 120 percent to $1.4 billion.

Ahmet Akarli’s growth forecast is higher than the Bank of Israel’s and the Finance Ministry’s.

Adi Ben-Israel, GLOBES,  4 Jul 10 12:56
Goldman Sachs expects rapid economic growth and low inflation for Israel in 2011, even as Israeli economic leaders are deliberating whether to cut their growth forecasts for the next two years, under the impact of the debt crisis in Europe.

Goldman Sachs analyst Ahmet Akarli predicts 3.5% real GDP growth for Israel in 2010 and 4.3% growth in 2011. The Bank of Israel currently predicts 4% growth next year, and the Ministry of Finance predicts less than 4% growth.

Akarli forecasts 2.4% inflation for the full years of 2010 and 2011.

Akarli believes that the shekel will continue to weaken against the dollar in the short term, but that the shekel will then begin to appreciate. He predicts that the shekel-dollar exchange rate will reach NIS 3.95/$ in three months, NIS 3.84/$ in six months, and NIS 3.60/$ in twelve months. “Widening demand differentials, a strong external position, and monetary tightening should drive the shekel stronger,” he says.

Akarli believes that the Bank of Israel will raise the interest rate to around 3% by the end of 2010, as it removes excess easing in response to the stabilization in the global economy and Israel’s snapping out of recession.  

In its global economic outlook for the third quarter, Goldman Sachs says that while the first half of 2010 was “exciting”, the second half will be “risky”. During the first half, the investment bank raised its global growth forecast from 4.4% to 4.8%, well above the market consensus, which rose from 3.8% to 4.6% over the same period.

Goldman Sach says, “Much as the first half of the year proved stronger than expected, however, Europe’s sovereign debt crisis and an associated increase in global financial stress have increased the downside risks for the second half.” It sees two dangers: budget cuts reducing growth, and stress felt by European banks may lead them to tighten credit conditions.

“Our own view is that the some of these fears are exaggerated, but the situation is fragile and the risks to growth are higher than at any time since the recovery began. The consensus expects global growth to slow quite sharply, from a 5½% quarter-on-quarter annualized pace in first half to a 3½-4% pace in second half, and the price behavior across a range of asset markets suggests that financial markets are pricing in an even bigger decline. We are more optimistic but we still expect global growth to slow materially to a 4%-4½% pace in the second half.”

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news – www.globes-online.com – on July 4, 2010

© Copyright of Globes Publisher Itonut (1983) Ltd. 2010

Thursday, 01 Jul, 2010,  from AFP, Dawn.com

PALMAHIM AIR BASE, Israel: The eyes in the sky of modern warfare, whose hallmark hum is heard over Afghanistan, Iraq and Gaza, drones are a key weapon and a major cash earner for Israel, the world’s largest exporter of pilotless planes.

With more than 1,000 Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) sold, Israel has raked in several hundred million dollars over the years.

Israel’s fleet ranges from aircraft which fit in a soldier’s backpack to planes the size of a Boeing 737 that can fly as far as Iran.

The flying robots can be used to watch, hunt and kill.

Interest is such that a Turkish military delegation reportedly made a secret trip to Israel last month for training in remote piloting of the Heron drone, despite a major diplomatic crisis between the two countries.

“It’s good for reaching remote targets, wherever it’s needed,” an officer who would only identify himself as Captain Gil, said, pointing to an IAI Heron on the tarmac of the Palmahim Air Base, near Tel Aviv.

The plane, known in Israel as Shoval – “trail” in Hebrew – has a 16-metre (52-foot) wingspan, can fly at an altitude of 30,000 feet (almost 10 kilometres) and can stay in the air for 40 hours.

It carries an array of sensors and radar systems, transmits information in real time, and is equipped with missiles.  

“It can stay above a target a long time, without fear a pilot might get shot,” said Gil as the bright sunlight reflected on the aircraft’s silver fuselage.

The sound of a drone circling over the base could be heard. A monotonous hum that is all too well known to residents of the Gaza Strip, where at times it is followed by a deadly air strike.

UAVs played a key role in the devastating 22-day offensive against the Palestinian enclave which Israel launched on December 27, 2008 in a bid to end daily rocket fire against the Jewish state.

Drones – US-made in this case – are also widely used in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, both to monitor and to strike.

Turkey says it is using Israeli drones, in coordination with the Americans, for surveillance in northern Iraq, the rear base for attacks on Turkish targets by the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK.)

Israel prides itself on the cutting-edge technology of its UAVs, but human rights groups said scores of Palestinian civilians were killed by drones during the Gaza offensive.

Israel insists it does all it can to avoid civilian casualties, while Gil stressed that drones are crucial to troop protection.

Gil, who sports aviator-type sunglasses, is a pilot, but one who sits outside the plane – behind a computer in an office set up in a container.

Take-off and landing is generally done manually, with the computer taking over, unless manually overridden, for the rest of the flight.

Israel recently unveiled the Heron TP, also known as Eitan – Hebrew for “strong” – a 4.5-ton flying behemoth about the size of a 737 whose autonomy puts it well within range of Iran – the Jewish state’s arch-enemy.

At the other end of the scale is a hand-sized and -launched flying machine.

“Israel is the world’s leading exporter of drones, with more than 1,000 sold in 42 countries,” says Jacques Chemla, head engineer at the UAV department of the state-owned Israel Aircraft Industries, the flagship of the country’s defence industry. That, he says, brings in about 350 million dollars a year. –AFP

http://www.dawn.com/wps/wcm/connect/dawn-content-library/dawn/news/world/35-spy-in-the-sky-rakes-in-millions-for-israel-ak-03

Copyright © 2010 – Dawn Media Group

Elron subsidiary shows interest in Nazareth-based NGT technological incubator which is run by Jewish and Arab businessmen

By Navit Zomer , YNet News, June 29, 2010

The IDB Group, through its Elron subsidiary, plans to invest NIS 8 million (about $2 million) in the Carticure start-up company from the NGT incubator in Nazareth, Yedioth Ahronoth’s economic supplement Mamon has learned.

NGT is a technological incubator run by Jewish and Arab businessmen. The majority of funding for its projects comes from the Chief Scientist’s Office and the incubator’s investors.

Carticure was founded four years ago by Dr. Gila Maor as part of the NGT incubator. Its technological platform generates original hyaline cartilage-producing cells to be transplanted into damaged joints, replenishing small and large lesions in the articular cartilage.  

Elron is looking to invest in other companies from the Nazareth-based incubator as well.

The interest in NGT began following IDB Chairman Nochi Dankner’s visit to Nazareth in January during a tour of the area with President Shimon Peres and other senior IDB officials. The businessmen met with some 10 companies from the NGT incubator and had follow-up meetings with additional companies.

A new wind blows between Israelis and Palestinians

By Karin Kloosterman, Israel 21C 
June 28, 2010

Despite the latest tensions, two companies – one Palestinian and one Israeli – are integrating wind turbines together in the West Bank and beyond.

A bridge of peace: The team from Israel Wind Power and Brothers Engineering Group.

A path toward peace may be blowing in the wind, if a new wind energy project between a Palestinian and an Israeli company succeeds. The two companies, Israel Wind Power based in Ramat Gan, near Tel Aviv and Brothers Engineering Group from Bethlehem in the West Bank, have just announced their intention to cooperate in the building and selling of wind turbines in the West Bank region and beyond.

Most significant, they are undeterred by the latest tensions between Israel, the Palestinian Authority (PA) and world powers in the wake of the recent Turkish-led flotilla incident that occurred near Gaza.

Brothers Engineering Group was founded by Dr. Mohammed Salem, a pharmacist, businessman and social entrepreneur with Engineers without Borders. Salem, the company’s CEO, has been in the wind business since 2006 and employs 15 people in Bethlehem. His company supplies wind turbines and solar solutions to the West Bank region.

"Business collaboration in the area of wind energy is something which will be for the benefit of everyone. It will serve as a bridge of peace for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Salem declares.

"We will be one company, together," Salem tells ISRAEL21c, adding that: "The plan is from yesterday not tomorrow." The two companies plan on cooperating in marketing, manufacturing and installation of wind turbines to generate electricity on a scale of 50 kW to provide wind power for factories, offices and private homes.   

Start with the PA and move beyond

In fact, a year ago the Brothers Group made e-mail contact (in English, their common language) with Israel Wind Energy, a company that was founded about a year ago, which provides wind turbine solutions and has also developed its own wind turbine. "We got emails from them last year," says Yanir Avital, the Israeli company’s founder, standing at Salem’s side. "They were interested in our product. We visited their company in Bethlehem and felt they could be a good partner. We could use [Salem's] connections, and with our connections we could help their company go one or two steps ahead."

The two sides intend to first cooperate on the integration of the wind turbines in the PA and later branch out beyond the region. "We’d like to develop and install wind turbines in the territories," says Avital. "In Israel we have very few places that can use this kind of energy."

Building their own wind turbines in the Bethlehem region for about five years, the Brothers Group supplies off-grid wind energy in the West Bank based on orders from non-profit organizations that direct the energy to those who need it most. They also supply turbines to private clients who buy them to offset electricity costs.

While the PA says it plans to offer feed-in tariffs from the Palestinian energy and utilities companies to the people who invest in renewable energy, as is currently the case in Israel and the US, at the moment no working network exists, Salem explains, so that for now his customers are either NGOs, or private citizens looking to reduce their energy costs.

The Brothers Group offers university students in the West Bank courses in building wind turbines, some of which are used for treating wastewater. The company also has experience with solar energy. Salem believes that the partnership with Israel Wind Energy will be mutually beneficial: "We will be good partners for designing and building big turbines, with our technology and their technology."

Israel Wind Power’s turbines are light, quiet and aesthetic, according to the company.

Expanding into the wind

In the West Bank, the Brothers Group doesn’t import any parts, but builds everything from scratch with the help of 10 engineers and five laborers. "Our turbines are built from parts from Palestine. We are the first and only wind company in Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine that’s building turbines," Salem asserts. He says he’d like to work in the Gaza Strip as well, but it’s impossible to bring in the parts, since the Israeli government highly regulates such materials which could also be used to build missiles.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian company builds about one wind turbine a day, which can generate from 200 to 2,000 watts of power, per hour.

Israel Wind Energy is already building wind turbine solutions slated for imminent export to Europe and Russia – these are mostly turbines that can convert wind energy for heating water. In just a few months the company is expected to begin selling its ‘Dude Ruah’ (‘wind tank’) that is currently in production. Founded to coincide with attractive feed-in tariffs offered in Israel, the company has also developed its own wind turbine which works well on household roofs and sports an attractive design and low-noise output.

"The turbines we make are light, quiet and aesthetic," Avital tells ISRAEL21c, pointing to one designed with an Israeli flag. A single kilowatt unit costs about $5,000 he says and would provide about one-quarter of the energy used in a mid-sized home.

However, according to Avital there is only one location in the Golan Heights which is ideal for wind, and the next suitable place in area is in the West Bank. He believes that cooperating with the West Bank-based Brothers Group could help the Israeli company to expand into regions where there is more wind.

A blessed enterprise

Yoram Suissa, the business development manager of Israel Wind Power, says that through the collaboration his Palestinian partners will be able to display their technology in the international arena: "We will be a pipeline for our Palestinian friends and colleagues for their products to be marketed both in Israel and abroad."

With its six employees, Israel Wind Power, which was formed and is financed by the Y. Avital holding company, plans to offer technical knowledge and professional training for large capacity turbines, as well as advanced wind energy approaches.

"We see this joint business venture as a business enterprise which connects these two communities in a blessed way, setting aside the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," says Salem. "We believe that this is an example of the ability of ordinary people to bridge gaps between our communities, especially during these stormy days."

The two companies hope to have projects up and running within the next year. That is, of course, assuming that the fickle political winds don’t blow the plans off course.

Source: Israel21C.org

In September, world leaders will meet at the UN for a summit to discuss strategies for achieving the eight Millennium Development Goals by 2015.  In the meantime, the UN is kicking into high gear with a number of events, reports and behind-the-scenes politiking over the MDGs. (And rest assured, we are planning some special coverage of all the MDG action on UN Dispatch this summer).  Yesterday,  Ban Ki Moon kicked off what I am calling the summer of the MDGs with a report taking stock of progress–and sometimes lack thereof–on achieving each of the eight goals.

The report shows that there are a number of verifiable successes, particularly in cutting by half the number of people living in extreme poverty, acheiving universal primary school enrollment, and fighting infectious diseases:  

Still, progress has been uneven.  Countries in sub-saharan Africa tend to lag behind other developing countries in many of the indicators used in the MDGs. The global financial crisis has also taken a toll on global efforts to acheive the MDGs.  From the report:

Here is the full report.

MDG Report 2010

Building homes for the other side

June 23, 2010

LINDA GRADSTEIN, thestar.com

MODI’IN ILLIT, —Younnes Salah, a tall broad-shouldered father of five, is a Palestinian who spends his days building new homes for Jewish settlers in this ultra-Orthodox settlement. He works hard, supervising 50 labourers, all Palestinians and brings home $1300 a month — a nice salary in the West Bank.

Ideologically, Salah says he would rather work building Palestinian homes in the West Bank than Jewish settler ones. But practical considerations win out.

“There is no alternative whatsoever in the Palestinian areas,” he said as temperatures of more than 38C. baked the construction site. “I have to bring food to the table. I have a 5-year-old daughter who needs special medical treatment. Where could I make this much money anywhere else?”

Israeli officials say there are 25,000 Palestinians working in Jewish settlements, most in construction. Salah says the number is significantly higher, as it does not include temporary workers who don’t have the special permits needed to enter settlements and sneak in through back roads.

Palestinian Authority statistics show that each worker supports 10 family members, meaning at least 250,000 Palestinians in the West Bank are dependent on these jobs. But last month, with great fanfare, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced a new law making it illegal to work in Jewish settlements. He also announced a $50 million dollar fund to provide employment alternatives.  

“The idea is to disconnect economically from the settlements,” deputy Labour Minister Hassan Al-Khatib said in an interview in his office in Ramallah. “By 2011 we hope there will be nobody working in the settlements.”

But when pressed for details about when the fund will start paying out, Khatib is vague. He says the fund will merge with an existing fund to tackle unemployment, which is about 25 per cent in the West Bank and 40 per cent in Gaza.

Workers in Modi’in Illit say they’ve heard about the fund but won’t leave their jobs until they know they have an alternative.

“If they are capable of providing proper work for us with a good wage I will leave my job here tomorrow,” Salah said. “But I do not want to hear they’re offering $100 or $150 a month. That won’t work for us.”

The effort to get Palestinians to stop working in the settlements is part of a larger push to boycott Jewish settlements and their products. The settlements, with their population of 300,000 Israelis, are built on land that the Palestinians say must be part of the future Palestinian state.

Palestinian officials have published a list of hundreds of products made in Jewish settlements, from furniture to ice cream, that Palestinians are asked not to buy. Last month, thousands of university students went door to door asking Palestinians to sign a pledge not to buy settlement products. Those who signed received stickers saying “My conscience is clear. I have no settlement products in my house.”

Israeli officials estimate Palestinians buy about $200 million worth of settlement goods and the boycott could hurt Israeli firms, especially small ones. Business owners caution that Palestinians will be hurt as well — if the boycott succeeds, businesses will cut back on labour, including Palestinian labour. But many Palestinians say it is a matter of national pride.

“I’ve seen children reading the fine print on products to see where it’s manufactured and that means this campaign is succeeding,” said Hafez Barghouti, the editor-in-chief of the Palestinian newspaper al-Hayat al-Jadid. “This is the only way for us to feel we are getting our dignity back.”

The boycott campaign has been effective because there are alternative goods manufactured in Israel or the West Bank. But getting Palestinians to quit their jobs will be a much tougher sell. The law that makes it a crime to work in a settlement threatens violators with prison terms and up to $14,000 in fines. Deputy Labour Minister al-Khatib says it won’t be enforced until at least 2011.

Back in Modi’in Illit, Younnes Salah says the Israeli contractor is pressuring him to build faster, afraid that U.S. pressure on Israel to stop settlement expansion might put the project on hold. He works his men hard and says the four apartment buildings, each with 22 apartments, should be completed by the end of the year.

By Ashley Gold
Pittsburgh Tribune Review
Saturday, June 19, 2010

What Asian state was the first to pass gay-rights legislation, have a fully functioning democracy, introduce items like lithium batteries and tsunami-detection devices to the world, operate the fastest and most efficient hospital in Haiti after its earthquake and be ranked for being environmentally conscious?

Sounds like a great place, right? This place reminds me of California. It has endless beachfront restaurants, the world’s freshest dairy products, a world-class selection of fine goods and a laid-back atmosphere with a rich, diverse landscape. It features beautiful wineries to the north and scorching desert to the south. It’s progressive, democratic and creative. And its health-care system is ranked 28th in the world.

But it’s not California — it’s an oasis in the middle of a turmoil-ridden Middle East known as Israel.

Many people have misconceptions about Israel. It’s not their fault (but I often wish I could send everyone who hasn’t been there). It would be a giant exodus to the country called "Operation Israeli Clarification and Eye-Opening Mission."

But since that isn’t possible, let me try to explain life in Israel, starting by dispelling some myths about the country I consider my second home:

• Israel isn’t a modern country. People ride around on camels in the desert.

FALSE. Israel has one of the most efficient and extensive bus systems in the world, offering affordable transportation from city to city in addition to a safe, affordable taxi service, train service and sherut service. Sheruts are shared taxis. For 7 shekel (about $1.90) you can take a small, air-conditioned van around a city or from one city to another. And forget the camels, because software startups and high-tech firms dominate Tel Aviv’s market, with offices in steel skyscrapers and cutting-edge computer and wireless Internet technology far more advanced than that of the U.S.

• All of Israel is very religious.   

FALSE. Just as Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism separate varying degrees of observance in the U.S., the same goes for Israel. One can go days and days without seeing anything indicative of religion — unless you’re going on a weeklong tour of the Old City of Jerusalem and then you’ve got a spiritual inculcation of Christian, Muslim and Jewish holiness all at once. Tel Aviv, in particular, is an extremely secular city, its residents arguing that although they aren’t religious people, they are inherently Zionistic. I walked the streets of Tel Aviv looking for a temple one day, and only came across one. You’re more likely to see people not observing the Sabbath in Israel by driving and dining out on a Friday night than you are to see people praying.

• Arabs wouldn’t step foot in Israel, and are not represented in Israeli government.

FALSE. Since the state of Israel’s inception in 1948, Arabs have been elected into the Knesset (Israeli parliament) yearly, representing various sects of Arab Israelis living peacefully alongside other Israelis. Also, 1.4 million non-Jews live in Israel, about three-quarters of them Arab. The national languages of Israel are Hebrew and Arabic and every street sign is in both languages.

• Israel is dangerous and you shouldn’t send your kids there.

FALSE. This is a place I feel safer in than anywhere else, where I sit down on the public bus and don’t think anyone looks suspicious or is going to pickpocket me — far different than how I felt during my two weeks of travel in Europe, where I watched violent fights break out on the Brussels subway and constantly had to clutch my bag tightly in fear of being robbed. The feeling of immense comfort and happiness that comes over me when an 18-year-old Israeli Defense Force soldier with an M-16 strapped across her body sits next to me, and she compliments me on my purse, is an everyday occurrence. Watching members of the IDF walk the streets or on campus at Tel Aviv University with you is even better. This is a Middle Eastern country where you can walk the streets alone at night, wearing whatever you please, and have no fear of possible sexual assault or petty crime or theft.

This is the Israel I know. And it’s the one I hope most of the world comes to know.

Ashley Gold, a print journalism major, will be a senior this fall at Penn State University Park. She spent the spring semester studying at Tel Aviv University and is interning this summer at the Trib. She lives in Monroeville. Craig Smith’s Saturday Q&A is on vacation.

True 3D play is only months away

By David Shamah, Israel21C, June 07, 2010

Microsoft’s newest XBox video game console is generating excitement among gamers worldwide. Its core component – a radical new 3D sensoring technology – was developed by Israel’s PrimeSense.

Using PrimeSense technology, Xbox users can place themselves in the game.

Video games aren’t just for kids. Gaming is a $20 billion annual business in the US alone, having long ago surpassed sales in the music industry. And Israeli companies – chief among them Tel Aviv-based PrimeSense – are at the heart of the latest developments sweeping the industry. Thanks to the company’s 3D sensing technology, set to become the central feature of Microsoft’s latest XBox video game consoles, true 3D play is just months away.

PrimeSense and several other Israeli companies have been quietly developing hardware and software for a new iteration of the XBox gaming system, codenamed Project Natal, which was announced in 2009.

Last year, Microsoft acquired Israeli company 3DV, which many industry observers believed was connected to the development of Project Natal. Meanwhile, last month SanDisk based in Kfar Saba in central Israel, began shipping its Xbox 360 USB Flash Drive, designed to enable gamers to easily move their avatars and game stats between XBox machines.

But it is PrimeSense’s 3D interactive system that has generated the most excitement, especially after an April press conference in Tel Aviv, where top Microsoft honchos announced that the motion technology built into the final Natal product was being produced by PrimeSense. XBox users will be able to place themselves literally ‘in the game,’ by attaching a box made by PrimeSense to their systems.

When a user walks into the range of the PrimeSense 3D sensor, anything he or she does ‘live’ will be reflected in the actions of the avatars, the action figures that play the game on-screen. If you’re playing tennis, for example, you just move your arm in a racket-swinging motion when you see the ball coming at your avatar – and your avatar’s arm moves, swinging the on-screen racket and, hopefully, hitting the ball back at your opponent. Your avatar does whatever you do.

Helping Microsoft to battle the competition

The new addition will help Microsoft in its ongoing battle against Nintendo and Sony, makers of the Wii gaming system and the Playstation console, respectively. Gamers can spend hours debating the fine points of the different systems – each has its advantages – but most consumers agree that the technical specs and networking capabilities of the XBox are the best of the lot, while the Wii is most user-friendly, mainly because it uses a sensor to represent your actions on-screen.

When you enter the field of vision of the Wii tracker, you see your avatar mimicking your live actions on-screen – just like with the PrimeSense sensor. That user-friendliness has made the Wii the most popular gaming console, outselling both XBox and Playstation between 2008 and the beginning of this year.

It was to address this advantage of the Wii that Microsoft decided to integrate PrimeSense’s technology into the XBox, company CEO Inon Beracha tells ISRAEL21c. "At the heart of our product is a chip that is such a sea change in the implementation of 3D sensing, it’s like the change from analog to digital technology," he declares. "That’s how far superior it is to the Wii’s implementation. If the Wii can track one point – an X and Y axis – and extrapolate it into action on screen, our product can sense tens of thousands of points, making the sensor much more sensitive and accurate. It’s like wearing a suit of Wii armor," says Beracha.

The PrimeSense sensor has a new chip the company has developed based on a technology called "light coding." The device receives an infrared pattern as an input, and produces a VGA-size depth image of the scene. It works in full 3D, capable of translating depth and distance into games – unlike another Sony gaming device it has been compared to, called the EyeToy, which could only understand 2D.

Changing channels by moving your hand

Not only is the PrimeSense system more accurate, it’s also a lot cheaper to produce. "Microsoft of course controls pricing on the XBox system, but I can tell you that what we have built for them is not likely to raise the price of the system significantly," Beracha states. The Internet rumor mill seems to confirm this, with several gaming bloggers claiming that Microsoft will slash the price of the Natal-equipped XBox.

The official release date is expected to be announced at the upcoming E3 show (the Electronic Entertainment Expo, June 15-17). According to a Microsoft source, the system will be released at the end of October – in time for the winter gift-buying season. Regardless of the release date, Beracha says PrimeSense is ready, as development of the technology has been completed.

While PrimeSense is licensing the technology for Microsoft’s use, the company has other plans for its 3D sensoring technology: "With a device we are developing for home entertainment systems, users will be able to change channels or adjust volume with just hand gestures," Beracha reveals. Other uses could include interactive systems for video communications, security systems, digital signage, air conditioning, touch screens and many others, he adds.

Meanwhile, the Microsoft deal has been the engine for the Tel Aviv-based company, which was established in 2005 and has a very respectable 95 people on its payroll.

PrimeSense was founded by Aviad Maizels, who served in an elite intelligence unit in the Israel Defense Forces as head of a technological R&D section. According to Beracha, Maizels had long envisioned a product like the one developed by PrimeSense, which is the main reason that he founded the company.

PrimeSense received its first seed money in 2005, and counts Gemini Israel Funds, Genesis Partners and Canaan Partners among its investors, with the latter alone investing $20 million in the company in 2008. The investors needn’t worry, Beracha says; they will recoup their money, and then some. "We are set to become profitable in the near future," he asserts.